The Art of Gratitude

My husband Adam and his business partner Robert put together an app that helps you to appreciate what you are grateful for based around the idea that if you write down three appreciations a day for a month it significantly impacts your sense
of appreciation, positivity, and satisfaction.

It's free, easy to use and fun. No catch, this project was developed so they could start working together with a small project that would positively impact people, before moving on to a larger project.

I guess you could say I've had some bad experiences with gratitude, Velveeta. Maybe that's why I'm so bitter.

Let me give you just one example . . .

Once, during the brief period of my life when I was gainfully employed, I was invited to go to a staff meeting along with everyone else in the department. The subject of the meeting was 'Gratitude.'

In the meeting, everyone was told to look at the person to the right of him and give one reason why he was 'grateful' for that person.

Well, people were coming up with all kinds of nonsense, saying they were grateful for the way Suzie sharpened her pencils or the fact that Timmy had a jar of jelly beans on his desk. You know, just stupid, meaningless stuff like that.

But you know me, right? I like to cut thru that superficial crap and get to the heart of things. So when it was my turn, I looked at my neighbor, Mary Ellen Sidorski, and said, "I'm grateful for Mary Ellen, because when we're in the serving line at the cafeteria, and she reaches over to get some Jell-O, you can see her _________." [insert duck-call noise]

Can you believe it? I was the only honest person in that whole damn room! But guess who got reprimanded and told that his remarks were 'inappropriate.'